A Different Twilight
by Alwaysgurl2013
Summary: What I think would have happened if Edward hadn't arrived in time to suck the venom from Bella.


**Author's Note: This takes place as if Edward hadn't been able to save Bella from James' bite in Twilight. I don't know where this came from but it demanded to be written. So here you go.**

Bella's POV

It had been nearly twenty years since that night that I said goodbye to Charlie in the worst way possible. I wish I had been able to go back and take it all back but the venom had already started spreading before Edward could stop it. He sat by my side through all the pain, his guilt growing as quickly as the fire that raced through me. By the end of the three days he had been waiting for me to open my eyes, but he was also waiting with an apology. But over the years we had gotten passed it. The apology was barely needed and Edward learned to accept that I was made more for the Vampire life way more than I was ever made for the human life. Everything came naturally to me and I flew through the newborn period without even drinking one human's blood. I was even ready to go back into civilization within a few months of being a newborn so we were able to start at out new high school the following fall. Edward was right though of course about how even though we did repeat high school many times it was better because we could stay in a place longer.

But even though I have my life with Edward without the threat of being human, I did lose the things that were as important to me as Edward, even though I didn't want to hurt him by sharing how much I missed Charlie and Renee. Edward got the chance to say goodbye to them. And I was there in the shadows but it didn't help in the way I thought it would. He explained that his family was leaving because of how much grief he felt for losing me. The news had been everywhere. It was like Fork's own Romeo and Juliet almost- with the exception of Romeo being alive. Romeo had chased after Juliet's flight in the night, but a semi had come out of nowhere on a dark rode and hit the Chevy that she had loved so much. The fire burned so hot that Juliet was nothing more than a burnt, charred body beyond the help of dental records for help. But it made sense to everyone when Edward came to say goodbye to Charlie and Renee and apologized for the umpteenth time about how he didn't take good enough care of me and said he would spend the rest of his life trying to make it up to the universe. And as I watched from the shadows of the forest that day, I felt like I would have been in tears if I could have cried seeing the pain in Charlie and Renee's faces.

My funeral had been closed casket and my parents wept for the daughter that wouldn't make it passed junior year. The Cullen Family had attended the funeral, but Edward left before the main bit happened. The public believed he was beyond himself, but he more didn't want me to be alone on the day that I felt I was ruining my parents' lives. Even though Edward was keeping me company to try and keep my spirits up as he knew I was hurting everyone, I could see he was hurting inside. I had asked him what would have happened if I had been in that casket. I had asked him what he would have done if I hadn't survived James attack. And hearing his answer was hard.

"_I had mentally prepared myself for the worse. I was hoping that you would be alive so I could stay with you, but I was mentally preparing myself if James had killed you before I had shown up and it wouldn't have been good. I would have said goodbye to my family and most likely gone to the Volturi and asked them to kill me so that I would have followed you. Or well tried to." I knew deep down that Edward still felt that he, we, Vampires didn't have souls. "But Love, it doesn't matter because we have the rest of forever together and there's nothing anyone can do about it." I smiled with the thought even though I knew I was hurting everyone in my human life by leaving, especially Charlie and Renee._

The only thing harder than that was reading the headline this morning. No one in my family would have known about the events if I hadn't still been subscribed to the Forks' daily paper even though we lived on the other side of the country. The obituary though read very similar to the article that took up most of the front page.

_**Forks mourns tonight for the loss of one of the greatest police chiefs we have ever known. Officer Charles 'Charlie' Swan passed away early this morning in his sleep on the 20**__**th**__** anniversary of his daughter Isabella Marie Swan's death. Officer Swan had used his daughter's young death to warn everyone about the risks of drinking and driving…**_

The article continued on but that was all I needed to read. I felt frozen in space. Charlie was gone. Edward had said it gets easier as time goes on since there are less people you knew on the planet still but this was the first one that hit home for me. Renee had Phil after I 'died' but Charlie had been all alone. Every now and then I had thought about checking in on him but Edward would remind me how it would only hurt both Charlie and I more if Charlie thought that he was imagining me and reminded me how I didn't look like the Bella Charlie knew anymore. Even though I was in the living room with Edward, Esme, Alice, and Jasper and had felt pretty comfortable in Edward's arms the moment when I read the article on my iPad, I needed to be in the open on my own. Jasper felt the change in my emotion and looked my way before I sprinted out the door.

"Bella, love?" Edward's voice called softly behind me but I just kept running. I knew that it would only be a moment before he ran after me, so I took my head start and kept running.

Edward's POV

Everything had started as normal as could be. Even though we didn't sleep through the night like humans, we still start the morning with reading the news and other things as a family as it starts to be morning time. Bella had curled up in my arms and was reading a newspaper on her tablet as I continued reading a book on my tablet. Even though it is Bella's vampire birthday we try not to celebrate the day that she joined this life as it still is a rough topic even though Bella and I have worked through it. We prefer to celebrate her human birthday instead so it was just like any other day. Well it would have been a normal day if I hadn't felt Bella stiffen in my arms. Jasper's thought alerted me that Bella had a very sudden mood changed and before I could do anything to comfort Bella, she sprinted out the door.

"Bella, love?" I called out to her. I quickly tried to figure it out so I had a clue what was going through her head. And one look at her tablet was all I needed. The first couple sentences gave me all I needed to know before I sprinted after her.

_**Forks mourns tonight for the loss of one of the greatest police chiefs we have ever known. Officer Charles 'Charlie' Swan passed away early this morning in his sleep on the 20**__**th**__** anniversary of his daughter Isabella Swan's death. Officer Swan had used his daughter's young death to warn everyone about the risks of drinking and driving…**_

It didn't take more than a few moments to catch up with Bella as she had sprinted away but stopped running which helped me to find her. Right away I pulled Bella into my arms as she sobbed with no tears. "Charlie's gone."

"I'm so sorry love." Bella's arms wrapped around my waist as I held her as close as I could.

"I know… you said… it gets easier… but it hurts." Bella sobs.

"Love it's still not easy grieving. My parents were gone before I was even changed so I got to grieve them but moved on long before I met you. There's nothing about being a vampire that says you can't grieve."

"I never got to tell him." Bella's words confused me.

"Tell him what Love?"

"That I never meant any of what I said that night."

"He knows you didn't mean it." I knew I needed to own up to the letter I left on his table that day I said goodbye. "I told him." Bella's golden eyes looked up at me and for a split second I swore I could have seen the brown eyes that were so confused by me all those years ago. "The day I said goodbye to him and Renee I left a letter for him with some of the things that we didn't tell him. Remember how the story they were told was that you were coming to the hotel to talk to me when the truck hit your car? Well in the letter I told him that you had said you were going to come back to Forks and how you hadn't meant anything that you had said to either of us that night. How you were scared that if you cared too much you would get hurt but had decided that it was worth the risk."

"So Charlie thought I was going to come home?" I nod.

"He was at peace the moment he read it. He died content with his life. That's why he committed his life to help others Love; he wanted to make sure that others would have the chance to make it home."

"So he's in a better place than?"

"I would like to believe so, yes." And with that Bella smiled a small smile knowing that her father died knowing that she loved him and would have come home.


End file.
